Chap. X. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



373 



their rapid improvement within the last fifty or sixty years. Let 

 any one compare the fruit of one of the largest varieties exhibited 

 at our Shows with that of the wild wood strawberry, or, which 

 will be a fairer comparison, with the somewhat larger fruit of the 

 wild American Virginian Strawberry, and he will see what prodigies 

 horticulture has effected. 100 The number of varieties has likewise 

 increased in a surprisingly rapid manner. Only three kinds were 

 known in France, in 1746, w r here this fruit w r as early cultivated. 

 In 1766 five species had been introduced, the same which are now 

 cultivated, but only live varieties of Frugaria vesca, with some 

 sub-varieties, had been produced. At the present day the varieties 

 of the several species are almost innumerable. The species consist 

 of, firstly, the wood or Alpine cultivated strawberries, descended 

 from F. vesca, a native of Europe and of North America. There 

 are eight w r ild European varieties, as ranked by Duchesne, of 

 F. vesoc, but several of these are considered species by some 

 botanists. Secondly, the green strawberries, descended from the 

 European F. colina, and little cultivated in England. Thirdly, 

 the Hautbois, from the European F. ehrtior. Fourthly, the Scarlets, 

 descended from F. virgin ian<i, a native of the whole breadth of 

 North America. Fifthly, the Chili, descended from F. chiloensis, 

 an inhabitant ot the west coast of the temperate parts both of 

 North and South America. Lastly, the pines or Carolinas (including 

 the old Blacks), which have been ranked by most authors under 

 the name of F. grandifiora as a distinct species, said to inhabit 

 Surinam ; but this is a manifest error. This form is considered 

 by the highest authority, M. Gay, to be merely a strongly marked 

 race of F. chiloensis. 101 These five or six forms have been ranked 

 by most botanists as specifically distinct ; but this may be doubted, 

 for Andrew Knight, 102 who raised no less than 400 crossed straw- 

 berries, asserts that the F. virginiana, chiloensis and grand/' flora 

 " may be made to breed together indiscriminately," and he found, 

 in accordance with the principle of analogous variation, "that 

 similiar varieties could be obtained from the seeds of any one of 

 tftem." 



Since Knight's time there is abundant and additional evidence 103 

 of the extent to which the American forms spontaneously cross. 

 We owe indeed to such crosses most of our choicest existing 



100 Most of the largest cultivated 

 strawberries are the descendants of F. 

 grandifiora or chiloensis, and I have 

 seen no account of these forms in 

 their wild state. Methuen's Scarlet 

 (Downing, ' Fruits,' p. 527) has 

 " immense fruit of the largest size," 

 and belongs to the section descended 

 from F. virginiana ; and the fruit of 

 this species, as I hear from Prof. A. 

 Gray, is only a little larger than that 



of F. vesca, or our common wood- 

 straw berry. 



101 ' Le Fraisier,' par le Comte L. de 

 Lambertye, 18*54, p. 50. 



102 t Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iii. 

 1820, p. 207. 



103 See an account by Prof. Decaisne, 

 and by others in ' Gardener's Chron- 

 icle,' 1862, p 335, and 1858, p. 172; 

 and Mr. Barnet's paper in ' Hort. 

 Soc. Transact.,' vol. vi. 1826, p. 170. 



